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Biodiversity : Nature's Variety, Our Heritage, Our Future

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Biodiversity : Nature's Variety, Our Heritage, Our Future Australia’s’s Rreporteport C cardard o nonB iobiodiversityd Australia iversity “What we are doing now 70,000 a year world-wide. That’s Today, more than 100 mammal to biodiversity is like a faster rate of extinction than at species are endangered, burning Renaissance any time since the dinosaurs died vulnerable or potentially out 65 million years ago. Yet vulnerable. Forty per cent of masterpieces to cook plants and animals today are not Australia’s forests are gone, dinner.” dying out because of a maverick including 75 per cent of our Professor EO Wilson, meteorite. Rather, it is the actions rainforests, leaving many forest Scientist and writer of our own species, clearing ecosystems also endangered. natural habitats, spreading pest Biodiversity is our living heritage, plants and animals, and dumping Biodiversity is the web of life –the providing us with food, clothing, pollutants into the rivers, oceans thin skin of living things, housing, clean air and water, and atmosphere. including us, which inhabits the inspiration and spiritual renewal. surface of planet Earth. A group of independent It’s an integral part of our lives, Biodiversity includes humans, Australian experts recently and it’s easy to see that animals, plants, fungi and identified biodiversity loss as protecting biodiversity today will microbes - from dugongs to “perhaps the most serious pay off for the future health of daisies, toadstools to termites. environmental problem in human society, our economy and This variety of life has evolved Australia today” and “a cause for all life on earth. Yet how can we over hundreds of millions of national concern”. They said benefit from it without years. We don’t know how many species in all major groups of destroying it? As we look around species live on Earth – scientists plants and animals are at risk we know that biodiversity is have described about 1.8 million. (Australia: State of the under threat, yet often it seems But that’s just a drop in the ocean Environment 1996). there is little any individual can compared to the estimated 10 to do. We can become frustrated 100 million which probably exist. Losses and feel helpless that the Since European settlement in problem is just too big to tackle. More than a meteor Australia, 10 out of 144 species of Yet what has taken millions of marsupials have become extinct This book describes the benefits years to evolve is now being with unknown numbers of which biodiversity brings to destroyed at a breathtaking rate. invertebrates and lower order every part of our lives. The Professor Harry Recher, Edith creatures. We have lost three middle four pages provide some Cowan University, estimated we species of emu - the King Island, quick and simple things which all could be losing eight species an Kangaroo Island and mainland of us – even city dwellers – can hour, or Tasmanian emus are all extinct. do to help protect biodiversity for ourselves and for our children. For those interested in finding out more there are extra references at the back of the booklet. C o n 4 •5 t e Biodiversity - w n e live in t 6 •7 it s Biodiversity at t he dinner 8 •9 table iodiversit B y keeps us h 10 •11 ealthy dive Bio rsity in the ba 12 •13 ckyard 0 quick and b 2 ways to save eyond 14 •15 biodiv ersity Biodiversity on holida 16 •17 y Biodiversity on the 18 •19 farm Biodiversity afloat 20 •21 Warning signs of change 22 World rec ord breaker 23 s Find out more! 24 Top 10 reasons to care abou t biodiv ersity 4 “The majority of economists We used to think of plants and have never been taught that animals as just “out there ecosystems provide humanity somewhere”, something to inspire us with an absolutely and renew our spirits on the occasional bushwalk or drive through indispensable array of the country. But we are now realising services...” that we rely on biodiversity in every Professor Paul Ehrlich, part of our lives: Scientist and writer Our food and medicines come from • biodiversity. Biodiversity - the variety of all living things on Earth - is all around us and • Native birds, bats and insects looking after us. Even in cities pollinate our gardens. biodiversity is still an integral part of We breathe the oxygen produced life. We may not see it but biodiversity • by trees. helps keep our water drinkable, our Trees take up the carbon dioxide air breathable, our soils fertile for • produced by our factories. growing food, and our seas clean. Plants keep the air fresh in our • offices. Tiny bugs break down our garbage • into fertile soil. Our crops are protected from pests • by foraging birds and insects. Marine organisms clean up the • sewage we put into the oceans. Biodiversity cleans up 5 Australia People making a difference Some ecosystems, such as wetlands, Extensive clearing in the actually remove pollution from dirty Broughton Catchment, 180km water. As the water plants grow, they north of Adelaide, has left a extract nutrients and heavy metals legacy of spreading salinity and from sewage and produce oxygen for soil erosion. Local water quality other living things to breathe. New has suffered. Greening Australia housing estates have established together with the clothing artificial wetlands to break down company Esprit de Corps and sewage rather than discharging it to local farmers created rural- the sea. urban links to establish a plant nursery. Here local wattles and Biodiversity also acts as a free, natural other natives are grown for water purifier. For example, forests do replanting in the catchment. a great job of trapping silt and keep Early results suggest that salty water well below ground level. revegetation of the denuded The high cost of building water catchment with 7,500 plants has purification plants has led some reduced soil loss, slowed catchment planners to conclude that salinisation and increased forests are more valuable left standing habitat and biodiversity in the in catchments than sold off as timber. area. Greening Australia www.greeningaustralia.org.au rsity at Biodive 6 “If we forget that packaged eggs kangaroo) from the Southern or hamburger came from Highlands and spicy bush tomatoes animals, a cotton shirt from a from the desert, to mention just a few. Who knows what delicacies still wait plant, a wooden chair from a to be discovered in the Australian tree, then we have lost that landscape? connection with nature.” Pest-busters Professor David Suzuki, Geneticist and writer Everything we eat today is descended from a wild plant or animal. Most have long since left their wild past behind, Bushfood goes global including the ability to withstand The fledgling Australian bushfoods pressure from diseases, frosts and industry is now exploring new drought. Global warming and other ingredients based on Australia’s threatening processes, however, are native plant and animal biodiversity, putting more pressure on crops. Our gathered and prepared for thousands food supplies will rely on a regular of years by Indigenous Australians. infusion of wild genes in future to keep crops hardy and disease-free. Tangy quandongs and buttery macadamia nuts (excellent in Here in Australia, we are able to icecream) come from the rainforests, produce enough bread to feed aromatic lemon myrtle from our ourselves, thanks to genes taken from woodlands, pepperleaf and berries wheat plants that still grow in the (great for flavouring fish and wild. Genes from the native Middle Eastern wheat plants Agropyron elongatum and Aegilops unbellulata were introduced into three Australian wheat varieties. This has given our wheat resistance to the devastating diseases caused by leaf and stem rust viruses. We can’t make these genes t the din ner table in a laboratory – they are the result of 7 millions of years of evolution and People making a difference adaptation to the environment. In Kempsey, in northern NSW, Sweet rewards the Djigay Student Association has been working on a Other genes taken from a wild grass native to South-East Asia called Traditional Food Tree Park Saccharum spontaneum have been where edible food plants from used to enhance sugarcane crops. In around Australia are being the 1920s a mystery disease almost grown. A computer database is wiped out sugarcane but the native being put together which will genes gave the sugarcane resistance include scientific and common to the disease – and also doubled the amount of sugar that the plant names as well as the Aboriginal could yield. names for food plants and their traditional uses. Information will Dollars from genes also describe processing and One of the great benefits of cultivation details and where protecting biodiversity is that it possible, how the plant use is provides a pool of genes to improve our crops. Wild genes can provide important to both past and resistance to disease, improve present Aboriginal culture. The production and protect against park is supported by local long-term changes in temperatures Aboriginal communities and is and rainfall. In 1980 alone, the already achieving modest United States Department of successes with local tour Agriculture estimated that wild genes increased agricultural profits companies including it on their by US $1 billion. itineraries, and bushfood plants Everything we eat has a great offered for sale. genetic tradition. A typical roast The National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia lamb dinner is the pinnacle of www.nasaa.com.au thousands of years of careful breeding and selection to create a perfect meal. ity Biodivers 8 “Ironically, it is often not the big Over 21,000 plants around the world and beautiful creatures but the have reported medical uses. World- ugly and less dramatic ones wide sales from drugs derived from plants are worth about US$40 billion we need the most.” a year.
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